MINI Cooper Convertible

Because life is so much better when the wind is in your hair and the sun is on your face, MINI has released its brand new version of their Cooper Convertible. While it might not be the most manly of cars, it offers a great ride and great head room.

We’ll admit that the performance in the base MINI Cooper is nothing to write home about. Equipped with a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine, the MINI Cooper doesn’t exactly rocket quite like its big brother the S. However, with 118 horsepower and 114 lb-ft. of torque, the push and pull are just enough to make you feel like you could compete with the best of them on side streets and the highway. What’s most alluring about the MINI Cooper is how it handles.

With the wheels pushed to the farthest corners of the vehicle, there’s no doubt that the MINI handles just as you’d expect it to: like a go-kart. It’s been said for years, and we’ll say it again: This car is a complete blast to drive. Forget that ti’s small, forget that it has a smiley front façade (though its nothing compared to the new ’09 Mazda3), and forget that your buddies might make fun of you for driving one. Instead, strap yourself in, drop the top (because that’s what the convertible is all about) and put your right foot down. And if your friends are passengers, they’ll soon be grinning as wide as the Mazda3s and wishing they had a MINI of their own.

After clocking several hours on this MINI’s Openometer we couldn’t help but be amazed at the ingenuity of the design element. While it seemed a bit silly at first, it actually became a bit of a game to see just how many hours we could actually get on the dial, almost like a competition. Along with the glorious drop-top option, there's also a ginormous sun roof that is essentially the soft-top halfway undressed. All in all, we loved having our openness tracked -- it was quite liberating.

The hard-top MINIs have a distinctive look that makes them easily recognizable and highly attractive to the general public. Surprisingly, MINI was able to maintain that curb appeal with their convertible model. While other models tend to look flat, with uneven lines and edges and a body that seems disjointed, MINI manages to maintain a solid exterior design with their soft-top. Most notable in their 2009 convertible model is the loss of the “Mickey Mouse ears” over the rear headrests. Now, don’t worry that doesn’t mean your passengers will be supporting the weight of the car on their necks should the car roll, it simply means MINI paid close attention to criticisms made about their previous model.

BMW has introduced this new safety technology on both the MINI Cooper convertible models and their lineup of BMW convertibles (most notably on the 1-Series) which integrates electronically activated roll-bars into the back paneling, below the head rests. The roll bars will only pop up when the car is tilted past 30 degrees, meaning you’ll have an aesthetically pleasing vehicle until the situation calls for something a bit more practical.

However, provided you can keep your MINI on all four wheels, the design elements of the car echo those of previous generations, and while that might be boring and redundant for some, we absolutely love it. MINI has a good thing going. They know their heritage and their traditions and they stick to it like few other automakers do. Our only hangup on this particular model was the serious lack of trunk space and backseat legroom. Unless you have very young children (whose legs don’t make it off the seat anyways) or dogs, this backseat turns into the trunk as the limited cargo space (only 6 cu.-ft.) means you won’t be taking this ride to IKEA anytime soon.